
How to leverage social media for your Shopify store
26.08.2020
In 2020, the internet plays a big role in our everyday lives, whether that’s for personal or commercial reasons. And, lately, social media platforms have become the biggest part of it. These days, social media is essentially an online society. According to Review42, more than three billion people are expected to be on social media by 2021. We use social media for everything, from consuming world news to staying connected with our family and friends.
Because of this ubiquity, social media platforms have become an essential place for brands to build relationships and improve customer engagement. Social media allows brands to easily promote themselves to their targeted audience, share their latest news, and offer discounts and incentives. It’s an endlessly powerful tool for online merchants today, and in this article we’re going to cover some key steps to help you leverage social media for your Shopify store.
1. Choose the right social media platform
First things first – you need to find the right social media platform. This will entirely depend on your target audience, because you’ll need to make sure you choose the platform that best suits your brand’s demographic. Before deciding on a platform, it’s important to identify your perfect buyer persona, factoring in age, gender and lifestyle to create your ideal customer.

If you’re just entering the world of social media for your online brand, you’re probably considering the most popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These are perfect to start with, but remember there are other platforms worth paying attention to – such as Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok, for example. For a well-rounded approach, it’s a good idea to set up accounts on every platform your customers use.
Some platforms, such as Instagram, have the dual benefit of making the shopping experience easy and comfortable by allowing customers to buy products without leaving the platform. This feature not only makes shopping fast and convenient for customers, but it also gives online stores a new channel for sales. However, not all types of products can be sold on Instagram, so it’s worth having a look through the platform’s guidelines before you make your decision.
2. Create useful content
Creating useful content for your customers is the most effective engagement strategy out there, and will help bring a lot of valuable traffic to your Shopify store. And there’s no better way to share it than on your social media platforms.
There are endless options for useful content creation, including sharing the latest news from your brand, letting customers know about upcoming sales, running giveaways, writing informative posts about your products or industry, and creating immersive and inspirational lifestyle imagery. But without a doubt, the best way to engage with your customers is through video content. According to Wyzowl, video will soon represent 80% of all online traffic.
Fortunately, video content is easy to create. You could shoot some behind the scenes moments, tell your customers the story of how you started your online business, show people how to properly use your products, film lifestyle videos of your products in action – the possibilities are limitless.
3. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business on social media. Because influencers have already built their user base, it’s an effective, easy way to capitalise on their following and reach out to new customers. As of 2020, it’s becoming an increasingly popular marketing strategy, bringing in major traffic to your online store with minimum effort. It’s also one of the most effective forms of marketing for SEO, as the links from influencers’ social media pages have significantly high authority.
There are a lot of services that can help you to find the influencer that fits your brand. Whoever you decide to use, just make sure they have a high engagement rate, and that their values align with those of your brand – this will save you from getting in any hot water with the press.
4. Use your reviews
With an overwhelming 77% of shoppers consulting reviews before purchasing a product, utilising your reviews is an easy, effective way to build trust in ecommerce. And with so many online shops to choose from, reviews help tempt first-time customers towards your brand, and away from your competitors. To get more traffic from your social media platforms, share your best reviews with your followers, adding photos and even tagging the person that wrote it.
5. Interact with your followers
It’s not enough to get your customers to follow you on social media. To really maintain an active online presence, you also need to interact with them. You can do this by following them back, commenting on their photos (especially if they tag your brand), and sending them news and product recommendations that they might like. The online world full of bots, so being real and personal with your audience is a guaranteed way to make your brand stand out.
Try to keep your social media audience interested in the content you provide, and remember that no one likes too much self-promotion – you actually need to connect with your customers, listen to their opinion about your brand and answer their questions.
It’s also important to know who your followers are on each platform; this data can show you your buyer persona and what demographic groups are interested in your products. You can use this information in future marketing planning.
6. Targeted ads
If you want to reach a specific group of people and connect with users outside your follower base, you can run ad campaigns on your social media pages. Ad campaigns can either be organic or paid. Paid campaigns get you more traffic and drive more sales, while organic can’t get a maximum reach, so factor this into your decision. Different platforms have their own ad campaign rules, but mostly you just choose the audience (age, preferences, location) and choose a budget. Once you’ve run your first campaign, analyse the results; this will help you to create better campaigns in the future and direct more customers to your Shopify store.
Summing it up
Today, social media is its own unique world that allows Shopify merchants to engage directly with targeted audiences and improve the experience that customers have with their online brand. Try to leverage social media for your Shopify store and see how much traffic and revenue it brings to your business.
This article is a guest post by Aida Kubatova. Aida is a Content Strategy Manager at Growave. She believes in the power of ecommerce and loves online shopping herself. Every day she creates useful content to help entrepreneurs around the world to learn more about the latest news and innovations from the world of ecommerce in order to grow their online business.
By junowebdesign
At Juno eCommerce we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. As a result we are transparent in everything we do.
This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, request information or enquire about a product / service from Patchworks.
The policy explains how we use that information, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
We may change this policy from time to time so please check this page to ensure that you’re happy with any changes.
By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.
Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent, by email, to: info@junowebdesign.com.
Who are we?
Juno eCommerce
Where to find us
16 Commerce Square, Nottingham, NG1 1HS, United Kingdom
How to contact us in case of a complaint
+44 (0)115 941 8122
info@junowebdesign.com
How to contact us to request access to, or change, any personal data we may hold on you
+44 (0)115 941 8122
info@junowebdesign.com
ICO Registration Details
We are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Controller’s Office (ICO).
Registration Number: ZA376490
How do we collect information from you?
We obtain information about you when you use our website, email us or call us to enquire about our products and services, or if you register to receive one of our newsletters. We also collect information about you when attending industry-specific exhibitions, events and through networking.
We do not react to Do Not Track (DNT) signals, as any details captured are for the sole purpose of enquiring about, or signing up for, the Patchworks Integration Platform as a Service.
What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information other than business information that we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when.
Like many other websites, https://www.junoecommerce.com/ uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual.
Cookies enable us to provide you with a personalised experience, both online and via other media.
It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Please refer to your specific browser’s help / settings for more information on how to switch off cookies. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.
How we use your personal information
We use personal information about you in connection with the following purposes:
(Please Note: we will never keep paper copies of any of your personal data)
Fulfilling your requests:
to provide you with the information, products and services that you have requested from us
to complete any transaction you are undertaking with us
to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into you and us
to administer any promotion or competition that you enter via our website(s)
to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so
in the course of processing a job application or enquiry
to meet a legal or statutory obligation.
Marketing:
to provide you with information about other goods and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about
to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you, which may be based on your activity on our website(s) or the website of another Juno eCommerce Company or third parties’ websites
to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them, which may be based on your activity on our website(s) or the website of another Juno eCommerce Company or third parties’ websites.
If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please email us on info@junowebdesign.com.
Service Improvements and account management:
to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
to administer our site and for internal business administration and operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes
to notify you about changes to our service and to send you service emails relating to your account
as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure
to manage and operate your account with us
Please Note: We do not use automated decision making tools.
Sharing your personal information
We will not share your information with 3rd parties for marketing purposes.
However, we may pass some information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process products and to keep you informed).
When we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond the Patchworks Network, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.
These third parties may include:
Credit reference agencies and other companies for use in credit decisions, for fraud prevention
We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our staff and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.
Controlling your information that we hold
If we do not have a business relationship with you, then you have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us.
We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted.
You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us on info@junowebdesign.com
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking or unchecking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us on info@junowebdesign.com.
How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us on info@junowebdesign.com.
You have the right to ask for a copy of the non-business personal information Patchworks holds about you.
If you wish to raise a complaint regarding how we have handled your personal data, please email info@junowebdesign.com in the first instance and the Patchworks Team will investigate and report back to you.
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Keeping your information safe
When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. Any personal information is encrypted and protected via SSL and secure data storage. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.
We may store your personal information on Google and Amazon’s Clouds and in our Portal, CRM, Messaging, Accounting, Support and Email Service Provider software.
To read the detailed specification of how the third parties we work with keep your data safe, please click on each of the relevant links below:
https://cloud.google.com/security/compliance
https://www.digitalocean.com/security/
https://aws.amazon.com/security/
https://www.hubspot.com/security
https://slack.com/security
https://www.xero.com/accounting-software/security
https://www.atlassian.com/trust/security/
https://mailchimp.com/about/security/
https://www.elastic.co/legal/privacy-statement
In addition to the security and compliance policies documented above, Patchworks have GDPR compliant contractual agreements and / or Data Processing Agreements in place with each of our data processing sub-contractors.
Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
We will hold your data for no longer than we need it for, or if you have advised you wish us to delete it or we have a legal reason such as tax purposes. We aim to keep your data no longer than 5 years in all other cases.
You can request a copy of our retention schedule by emailing
info@junowebdesign.com.
Patchworks agree to the individual redress principle, which requires that individuals have a right to pursue legally enforceable rights against Data Collectors and Processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or a government agency to investigate and / or prosecute non-compliance by Data Controllers and / or Processors.
Should a data breach occur, every person whose data we control will be notified within 7 business days.
Keeping children safe
We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 18 or under. If you are aged 18 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.
If we learn that we have collected the personal information of a child under the relevant minimum age without parental consent, we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible. Parents who believe that their child has submitted personal information to us and would like to have it deleted may contact us on info@junowebdesign.com.
Profiling
We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.
In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.
Transferring your information outside of the European Union
We operate internationally. As part of the services offered to you by Juno eCommerce, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”).
By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EU. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.
If you use our services while you are outside the EU, your information may be transferred outside the EU in order to provide you with those services.
We keep this Policy under regular review.
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